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Beach’s defense wears down Central in 62-34 win

Beach girls basketball coach Ronald Booker is known for his courtside intensity during games.

But when the host Bulldogs fell behind early in their Class AAA playoff opener Tuesday night with Central-Carrollton, Booker remained calm.

“He just told us to keep playing our game — to stay aggressive,” junior forward Jada Young said.

The Bulldogs did just that, buckling down to hold the Lions to just 21 points in the final three quarters as Beach rolled to a 62-34 victory.

The Bulldogs improved to 26-3 this season and will host Pike County, which beat Swainsboro, in a second-round game at 5:30 p.m. Friday.

Trailing 13-9 after the first quarter, the Bulldogs pressed relentlessly, forcing turnovers which turned into fast breaks.

“We thought our defense would overcome them eventually,” said Booker, in his 35th season leading the Bulldogs. “It’s a cumulative thing; it doesn’t kick in automatically. But eventually our defense wears down teams physically and then mentally, as they start to make mistakes under constant pressure.”

Beach shut down Central in the second quarter, outscoring the Lions 21-4 with a combination of hustle, strength and speed.

Ollie Steadman (11 rebounds and nine points) got on the floor after a loose ball and fought to avoid a jump ball, launching a pass that led to a bucket down low from Young, who had 14 points with seven rebounds and five steals on the night.

Later in the run, Irie Spann (12 points, five assists and three steals) drained a 3-pointer from the right wing. On another possession, the Bulldogs pulled down four offensive rebounds before Young was fouled and made two free throws.

Beach cleaned up on the glass, grabbing 29 offensive boards among its 53 total rebounds.

“When we are shooting from the perimeter, we tell the girls it’s like a guard making a pass to a forward if we miss,” Booker said. “If you shoot 33 percent from the field in high school, you’re doing a great job. That means there are about 70 percent of the shots to go after, and the offense has just as much a right to rebound the ball as the defense does.”

The rout was on in the second half as the Bulldogs kept the defensive pressure up, making steal after steal.

Sophomore guard Ilyn Spann, recently named the MVP of Region 1-AAA, had another impressive game.

“I wasn’t expecting them to come out with so much energy in the first half,” said Spann, who had eight steals and five assists to go with her 12 points. “We weren’t talking enough on defense, but then we got it together. We started pressing and using a lot of hand action on defense and that helped turn it around.”

Jademone Jones pulled down 13 rebounds to go with three points and a pair of blocks, and Ty’Nika Johnson had seven rebounds, two blocks and two points.

Sophomore guard Jacqueline Anderson, the Bulldogs’ first player off the bench, scored all of her six points in the second half and also played well defensively.

Central (20-8) wasn’t the typical No. 4 seed. The Lions lost a coin flip for the top seed in their region, then they were upset in back-to-back games of the region tournament. Wesli Simmons led the Lions with 10 points, and Sherae Bonner added nine.

“We felt like this game should have been an Elite 8 matchup, but we laid an egg in our region tournament, losing two games by a total of four points,” Central coach Jimmy LeBlanc said. “But Beach’s pressure and depth wore us down. No. 11 (Ilyn Spann) was up in the face of our point guard all night. We like to play quick but not in a rush. They made us play in a rush tonight.”